Holiday season is also bubbly season, and Netflix is aiming to bring a little sparkle to your post–Turkey Day bliss with the silly yet watchable Champagne Problems, debuting this week. Hallmark used to have the monopoly on snow-laden holiday romances, but lately Netflix is getting in on the action, and this is a noble addition to the portfolio.
The frothy feature begins as our workaholic, too-busy-for-romance heroine Sydney Price (played by a delightful Minka Kelly of Friday Night Lights and Euphoria) is sent to Paris to purchase a luxury Champagne brand before Christmas after impressing her boss with her presentation on Dom Pérignon and the origins of Champagne. Prompted by her free-spirited little sister, our girl is off to the City of Love, armed with a suitcase of seemingly endless cashmere and orders to take a night off for once.
When Sydney does, she promptly falls for a handsome, mysterious Frenchman, Henri (charmingly played by Tom Wozniczka), in a cozy bookstore (of course). He insists on showing her the city’s holiday sights. After a blissful evening together, Sydney wakes up to realize she’s late for the pitch meeting with the owner of the Champagne house, Hugo Cassell.
She arrives at the meeting just in time to learn she’s one of four potential buyers, and that Henri is actually Hugo’s son (gasp!) and VP of the Champagne company. If you’re asking yourself why Henri isn’t taking over the family business, you’re not alone, but see, Henri has big dreams. He wants to prove himself to his mean père, who hasn’t been himself since the death of his wife, and start his own business: a bookstore and wine bar.
Hugo insists that all the would-be buyers must spend the weekend at his château before he could possibly decide who to sell his Champagne empire to, and his son Henri will join them. Time for a montage of Champagne, featuring snow-covered vineyards, sweeping scenes of the French countryside, and a majestic château decked out in full holiday decor.
Fairy Tale Romance with Bubbles
Filmed onsite at Château Comtesse Lafond in Épernay and nearby Château de Taissy, the setting is at least right—even if we’re asked to suspend our belief on a lot of other major plot points, like the fact that Henri and Sydney have known each other for less than 12 hours and are already professing their love. Or that lactose-intolerant Sydney is tricked into eating about a pound of French cheeses and recovers fast enough to go on a horse-drawn carriage ride.
But who cares! It’s Christmastime! There’s a dog named Bubbles! Rivals are becoming friends! People are sabering Champagne bottles with wineglasses, which might be the least far-fetched thing in this entire movie.
Over the course of the weekend, Hugo puts his guests through a series of “tests” to determine how well they know his Champagne, which includes asking them to guess the vintage by smell, sight and taste alone, having them prune the vines and racing to see who can riddle the most bottles in the cellar.
If all of this sounds ridiculous, that’s because it is, but it’s also exactly what you would expect from a movie like this. The story isn’t original, the romance is unbelievable, the villains are egregious, and love conquers all, but somehow it all goes down as easy as a glass of Champagne. Honestly, what more do you want from a holiday romance?
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